Panorama Panthers Outdoor Ed

11/25/2025

Middle Schoolers just being middle schoolers (including me)!

11/25/2025

Seed is going on the ground!

With the impending weather this weekend, we decided to get all of the seed that we collected on to the various parts of the prairie.
Tuesday, Nov. 25 - Outdoor Ed

All classes went out separately during their regularly scheduled class times.They seeded specific areas of the prairie with specific seeds. Mainly, most of our seed will go to the area of the prairie that has been disturbed last spring during the repair of the geothermal tubes for the elementary. Jax Joined us and was not very good at spreading seed, but he did chew a bunch of sticks.

10/22/2025

Birdhouse gourds! It takes a village to make something happen. I am hoping that all of my students can put one up next spring.

Over the summer, we were able to grow some birdhouse gourds at my neighbor’s land for a school project. Mrs. Dorhout helped pick and organize them. We just finished putting them up in a grainery loft. Hopefully in 4-5 months they will be bone dry and we can get them done. I couldn’t have done it without the help of a couple of my students and their dad.

Now, all we have to do is clean the exterior, drill holes, clean the interior, do a light sanding, decorate, preserve them with an exterior finish, teach the kids where to put them, make sure that they get them up, and routinely check them for activity! That’s it… Whew!

05/28/2025

Here's a video of the quail release earlier today:

https://youtube.com/shorts/lS9O_wC-g-4?si=fOH-ifszZ150fq3l

03/10/2025

It’s “Quail Egg Time” in Panorama MS Science - 110 eggs went in the incubator at 12:00 today.

https://youtube.com/shorts/5h5Yzphr7nY?feature=shared

https://youtube.com/shorts/kwLBGsqy6G0?feature=shared

https://youtube.com/shorts/T9-VjBWu-8g?feature=shared

https://youtube.com/shorts/JE_Pm2Cqopo?feature=shared

10/30/2024

Butterfly W**d (Asclepias Tuberosa) - With the impending rain, I collected approximately 50 pods from the plants in the pocket prairie that we looked at by my mailbox. These 10-12 plants were grown from seeds that we received from Steve Roe in the early spring of 2024. We are going to let them finish drying in the classroom (all the seed looks mature) and then we will separate the seed from the fluff using a colander. We will then mist it, freeze it (called stratification) and then next spring we will plant it. This will be one of the three "Marquee" species for the upcoming year.

Mark Dorhout

10/02/2024

What: 8th Grade Science Field Trip - Prairie Seed Gathering
When: Wednesday,, Oct. 2, 2024, from 8:15 - 11:40
Who: All 8th grade Students
Where: Delaney Farm, 1/2 mile West and 1.5 Miles N of the intersection of H44 and H169
Supervisors: Mr. Dorhout, Mrs. Walker, Mrs. Carmichael
Bus Driver: Dan Wagner
When kids are dismissed from their location in the morning, they will:
1. Bring all of their stuff to their lockers
- Small sealable water bottle
- No phone
- Minimal stuff in pockets
- Warmer clothes
- long pants
- socks (bring extra socks)
- long sleeves
- sweatshirt
- hat
-plastic grocery bags
-comb
2. Everyone will use the restroom as there are none available at the prairie
3. We will then meet by the front door
4. Take attendance
5. Load the bus
6. We will leave at about 8:25AM
***Cell phones: Students were told that they should not bring them along. The school is not responsible for their phone.

We will pick seed from 9:00AM - 11:10AM
-Mike Delaney, and possibly a couple others will be helping to organize us. He will talk to us at the beginning.

We will be back by 11:40, and kids will go to 4th period if we get back early, otherwise, kids will eat at their regular lunch and then go to their regular 5th period class.
Two things that you should always be able to see with a short walk is the bus area (SE) and the Fire Tower (NW)

09/28/2024

Day 2 of Panorama MS Outdoor Ed is wrapped up! 145 kids were out this week.

6th grade - Prairie introduction and picking of a specific seed - Purple Prairie Clover (Dalea purpurea)

Emphasis on 5 basics:
Be curious
Be safe
Know where you are at
Minimize disturbance
Enjoy your friends, but don’t goof around too much

7th - longer period - This will be for both 5th and 6th period and then we will flip with the other class and do the same on Thursday. We will be looking at the school prairie as well as taking a longer walk to the dam and south part of the LPA lakeshore. We discussed the dam and overflow and why it is designed like it is. We will also stop to look at the soil horizons at one part of the trail as we have a big unit in soils and seventh grade as well.

8th - Focus will be on local plants "running out of gas" in the fall and that it is dry. What are plants doing? Translocation, that’s what! When are seeds ready to be relocated (Indian grass example?) The "Prairie King," Compass Plant (Silphium lacinatum), will be discussed and examined. We will determine if we can start seed relocation from various plants. We are also taking a field trip next week to learn about prairies from expert ecologists and to harvest and relocate a bunch of seeds from a prairie near Dallas Center.



09/03/2024

What an awesome start to the year!!! It was warm, but the kids were great!

All of the middle schoolers took a walk to the Dorhout neighborhood (about one block from school) to look at two Prairie plantings that are in his yard. One is one year-old, and has some plants in it that the eighth graders planted last year. He is seeing if it is feasible to grow the small “Prairie Pocket,”throughout the community in an attempt to have more varied habitat for insects, small mammals, and birds.

03/13/2024

50 bird houses are heading home tonight with 7th graders. I am looking forward to seeing all the pictures of them installed at each of my student’s houses.